THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ADAPTIVE LEARNING OF MATH AND LANGUAGE

In primary education, teachers are faced with a diversity in terms of learners’ prior knowledge for initial arithmetic and reading. These differences require personalized instruction and learning support. For some aspects of the curriculum, adaptive learning systems provide a response to this challenge, as they allow to meticulously follow up on the learning process, visualize learning trajectories to the teacher, and individualize learning. The PhD project aims at evaluating the effectiveness of learning in adaptive educational games for initial arithmetic and initial reading. It will investigate the effectiveness of adaptive versus non-adaptive serious games. 

Besides, also the relation between the development of initial arithmetic and initial reading through (adaptive) serious games will be examined. Furthermore, the project will focus on the relation between learning behavior measured in serious games and cognitive (math and reading performance) and non-cognitive learning outcomes (math and reading anxiety and interest). To this end, different sources of data will be used, such as tests, logging data, self-reported data, and potentially psychophysiological data.